My sibling likes to stay in Marriott’s because they have a branded credit card.
I’m all over the place. I think I should stick with one big brand. One time Hilton has the best hotel for my location and the next is a Marriott. I like a Holiday Inn Express. Next week I’m staying at an Omni because it was the best choice for where I wanted to stay.
Creating distractions for myself lol
My husband travels a lot for work and always stays at a Hilton property. We usually have enough points to have free hotel stays on vacation and often we are upgraded and get free perks like breakfast or the executive floor/lounge. They own so many brands now that we’ve been pretty lucky.
Yes and no. I have a preferred brand, but the points take a back seat if another brand in a particular city has better pricing/location/amenities. But my travel requiring hotel stays is fairly minimal that it takes a long time for me to get meaningful points. And I don’t have/want a hotel cobranded credit card.
No particular brand for me. I looks for discounts/location.
We use Marriott primarily because they were the preferred hotel for business travel so we accumulated many points. They also have a wide range of options.
I try and find the best and location price for my trip. In recent years. the consolidation of the hotel loyalty programs means most hotels are either in the marriott or the hilton program, and I have membership in both. I don’t typically get enough points in a year to matter, but I sometimes get better rates as a member.
I don’t bother. The major hotel players have proliferated the chains they run; I think Marriott has more than two dozen. I’m puzzled why they do this. General Motors had a differentiation strategy with Chevy as the entry level, then several others above that. But two dozen plus?
Same here. Because of that, hotel (chain) brand loyalty is not a significant consideration for me when choosing a hotel.
However, I have noticed that having a points account for the hotel (chain), even without status, seems to give some preferred amenities, such as being more likely to be given early check-in than those without points accounts for the hotel (chain).
Perhaps to give the appearance of competition, without actually having as much competition in the market? I.e. they can open a Fairfield, SpringHill, and Residence Inn in the same area without looking monopolistic, even if they actually are.
Priorities: location, price, parking. Usually one of a handful of major hotel brands Hyatt, Hilton, Marriot, Fairfield Inn, Hampton Inn… there is some overlap in there LOL.
Ideally, free breakfast, so I can have my coffee with butter without having to talk to anyone. Not that I mind paying (and of course we are paying regardless), but I find that non-“free” breakfast is somehow more annoying.
I like good location most importantly. Everything else is secondary. I don’t book enough hotels frequently enough that my points entitle me to much of anything.
Always Hilton for us. After 100% travel for 17 straight years as a consultant, DH has Diamond (Plus) status with Hilton. No other hotel chain treats him the way Hilton does (too many stories to list*), so it’s never a question for us. Same with Hertz and American Airlines.
*Well, one story. DS and DIL just happened to choose a Hilton boutique property for their wedding. When DH realized it (we weren’t paying for the wedding), he called the hotel and was able to get them the Presidential Suite for the entire weekend free, and the hotel comped our room as well. Also, the events manager used DH’s status to apply a discount to the catering bill. The hotel also spontaneously closed their rooftop bar to the wedding party/family/friends the night before when DH approached the manager and offered to open an unlimited tab until closing time. (I don’t think the hotel made out on that deal.)
Not loyal here. I look for a combo of location and price and the free breakfast. I always check out the photos of the free breakfast to see which one looks the best.
I used to check bed size when we had the kids with us. Two queens got bonus points vs doubles. I still prefer to book two beds for us two, but queen vs. double doesn’t really matter as much.
My preference is Marriott but I’ll also do Hyatt, Intercontinental (Hol Inn), and Hilton.
I think the preference comes from location, ability to earn points, and reward / redemptionlevels.
I like Hampton better than Fairfield Marriott but Hiltons reward redemption are expensive. That said, if I stayed at Hilton regularly, I’d get point multipliers like I do at Marriott. But I believe there is the most bang for the redemption and earning buck in focusing on one.
I used to travel 100+ nights a year and I’m lifetime gold at Marriott. Now I’m. 40-50 nights.
One thing I won’t do is stay at places with bad trip advisor reviews and at places that unnecessarily run up the cost for the company. If the Courtyard is $200 and Hyatt Place $129 - I take the Hyatt Place.
When I redeem I try to get good value or I spend cash, not points.
Dh has lifetime platinum elite status with Marriott from all of his business travel (at one point, Marriott was one of his clients). We almost always stay at Marriott properties either using his points for free stays or to earn more points for future stays in more expensive locations.
Hampton is one of Hilton’s brands, and Fairfield is one of Marriott’s brands.
When you write “Hilton”, do you mean to include the various Hilton brands like DoubleTree, Hampton, and others listed at https://www.hilton.com/en/brands/ ?
Hilton points are redeemable at ALL their brands, including the Waldorf properties.
Hilton Family for us! Absolutely LOVE the Hilton app!
Generally we just go for the desired location/amenities and look for the best deal. I am a member for several brands but seem to use Hilton the most.
One nice perk is that membership can sometimes give you a better cancellation policy…. though sadly I’m almost never able to get same day cancellation arrangements. The associated online apps can be helpful. Driving across country, on the way home we did not reserve ahead. I was able to book rooms from the car, select desired room ,get an online key as soon as the room was ready. (I have had mixed experience doing the online key inside cellphone app… we like to pick up a keycard at the desk too.)
When my husband was a business traveler, we had a gazzillion Choice Hotel points…he traveled two weeks of every month for a long time…and he liked the location of the choice hotels where he was traveling. Plus they treated him well. For example, if he was leaving on a Friday and coming back on Monday, they allowed him to leave stuff in “his” room over the weekend which was very convenient.
I know…they aren’t the fanciest, but boy did we get a LOT of free nights!
He was Hertz preferred, and we still get that benefit also…even though he hasn’t been a business traveler for a long while.
Yes. As noted above, points are redeemable at all their brands.